Ruthie's Descent
by Twoppers
Summary: Ruthie tells her story of deciding to break away from the family, starting with a makeover. Rated R for Semi-darkness.
1. Default Chapter

Title: Ruthie's Descent  
Rating: R  
Authors: Tiger220, Hoedogg, jbpspbj   
Author's Note: This, like our previous work, is a round-robin fic by those good people at TWOP.  
Disclaimer: We own nothing.   
  
Chapter 1  
The room was quiet, dark, and bare. Ruthie had lost track of how many days it had been. Locked away in this little room, seperated from the rest of the world. They said she was dangerous; a menace to society. A small smile appeared on her face, while a quiet chuckle passed her lips. "I'll show them," she whispered to the shadow on the wall. "I'm just biding my time..."   
  
The shadow was her only friend. It always did what she wanted to do. As she did everyday, Ruthie sat cross-legged on the floor and began to tell her story to her one listener.  
  
"It all started when...my science teacher taught our class about this guy named Charles Darwin. See, Darwin had this theory that people weren't just created and put on earth. He said instead that they were evolved from apes, and that apes were evolved from other stuff, and that everything on earth now had evolved from tiny little organisms in a swamp a long, long time ago. Well, when I came home and told Mom what I had learned about Darwin she went nuts! 'Lies, all lies,' she shrieked at me while I stood there, confused.   
  
"God created all the little people!! Who is your teacher to be feeding you lies!!" And with that she flew out of the kitchen. I knew she was going to see my dad, and the two of them would go "counsel" my teacher. This time tomorrow, my teacher would be singing a different tune and everyone would know that I have the weirdest, worst family ever. Well, not this time. I was tired of every school I go to treating me extra gently so they don't upset my parents. This time I was going to defy my parents at every turn."   
  
Ruthie spastically twitched and convulsed for a minute, and the shadow she was speaking to did the same. Gradually, she regained control of herself, and so did her listener. She continued, "My first act of defiance was to turn on the television and watch the evening news. I had never been allowed to watch it before. My parents had always said the 'real world' was too scary for an eleven-year-old girl.  
  
"As I watched the news, there was a story about a bear escaping from the Glenoak Zoo. It had last been spotted in the same neighborhood as our church. I thought about calling Dad to warn him, but then he would know that I had been watching the news. So I didn't. Instead, I thought of other things I could do to be utterly defiant. For awhile I thought about smoking or drinking, but Mary and Simon had already done that. I'm unique!   
  
When the novelty of the news wore off, I started flipping through the channels. I finally stopped on that Martha Stewart show. She was redecorating an entire house armed with only a Sunday newspaper, left over Christmas wrap, and duct tape. That Martha. She sure is a character. That's when the idea hit me. I'd start by changing my room." 


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Ruthie's Descent  
Rating: R  
Authors: Tiger220, Hoedogg, Halcyon  
Author's Note: This, like our previous work, is a round-robin fic by those good people at TWOP.  
Disclaimer: We own nothing.   
  
Chapter 2  
Ruthie paused for a moment as she remembered the feeling she had when she came to the decision to change her room. The way it had felt when she left the house in search of supplies and furnishings to create her "new" room. The room that would be an extension of her new self. Ruthie looked back at the shadow and resumed her story. "Hello Kitty was the first thing to go. I knew how Matt and Robbie loved Hello Kitty so the first thing I did was stuff all the dolls and other trinkets up in the room that they shared. I then got rid of all the other "girly" stuff that mom picked out for me, the pink comforter, the pink and purple painted chairs, the pink pillows. It was my first small act of defiance against mom. She wanted to keep me forever as her "little girl."   
  
But when will she realize that all little girls must grow up. I had just tore down the last Kitty poster and threw it in the trash when Dad came in the room. He started to say something, but stopped when he noticed that my walls were bare and there really wasn't anything in there other than my bed and dresser. "What...are you doing?" he asked in that voice he has that sounds kind of confused and shocked at the same time.   
  
I put on my best angelic smile, looked up and said, "Just redecorating, Dad. I thought it was time for a change." Slowly he gazed around the room, and I was certain he was going to tell me to put everything back. But then he used that other voice he has. The one that's still confused sounding, but also a little suspicious and said "Oh. Do you need any help...".  
  
"Oh no, Dad," I replied. "I really want to do this on my own. Say, you sure look tired. What's up?" All of a sudden it was like he remembered what he had come up here for. He told me about the bear, and I did my best to act surprised. We talked for a bit about school, and he finally got around to the science issue. He "reassured" me that we wouldn't be studying that pesky evolution thing ever again. Again, I did my best to show the reaction he wanted. I acted pleased, when in reality I was a little upset. Learning something new for a change had been interesting.   
  
I didn't have much time to think about it though, because Mom came bursting in the room to repeat Dad's "good news". She stopped short when the noticed the state of my room. She let out an audible gasp, and her hand went to cover her mouth. I think she would have had a breakdown right then and there if Dad hadn't steered her out of the room insisting that this was only one stage of a redecorative process. I'll say this, Dad has a way with words. I'm sure they were heading for the kitchen because when Mom's upset, she cooks. Before they left though, Dad leaned his head back into the room and said "If you need anything help, just let me know!"  
  
"I sure will," I lied. I didn't want any help with the room. It had to be mine, all mine! 


	3. Chapter 3

Title: Ruthie's Descent  
Rating: R  
Authors: Hoedogg, Grace W., Whofleck, jbpspbj, gayguysaboundhere, nammaboo, nelamm, Sophronia  
Author's Note: This, like our previous work, is a round-robin fic by those good people at TWOP.  
Disclaimer: We own nothing.   
  
Chapter 3  
I sat down to think about what I could do to redecorate. What would be the best way to express my disgust at the way my family sanitizes my life? What would Martha do?  
  
And then it hit me: black. All black. Black paint on the walls, black sheets on the bed, black lights, black clothes, black hair, black nails, black lipstick. I realized that painting the whole room black would make it look very small and closed in. I needed something to break up the black, that'd make it look more spacious.  
  
I know, I thought. Mirrors! Mirrors on the ceiling, with black walls all around. That wouldn't be creepy or inappropriate at all. And hey, I see a window and I want to paint it black. I realized that I had to put mirrors on the ceiling over my bed. Yes, a whole ceiling of mirrors! Then, later, when I grew a little older and developed a womanly body, I could watch myself having adult relations with stranger after stranger in my wonderful mirrors. Even now I could be sinful by looking at my naked body in the mirrors.  
  
I started to wonder why I had given all of my Hello Kitty dolls to Matt and Robbie. After all, the dolls would please them, and I was trying to break away from the family. I went up to their room and selected Matt's and Robbie's favorite Hello Kitty dolls. I carefully sliced the heads off each one and dipped the necks in some red paint from the garage. There! I nailed the Hello Kitty pieces to the wall behind my bed. How delightfully un-Camden it looked!  
  
I hesitated after I nailed the Hello Kitty bits to the wall, wondering what to do next, and then it hit me: I knew how much Matt and Robbie loved Hello Kitty. I wondered, smirking, how they would like it in this context, this decoration. I hesitated again, at first. After all, I was redecorating my room, not theirs. But then I remembered that the redecoration was part of a bigger plan, not just to express my individuality, but to break away from the family. What better way to do it than to terrorize them. They wouldn't know it was me, after all, and it would teach Matt and Robbie a lesson, that they needed to grow up, move out of the house.   
  
So I crept back into their room, to retrieve another Hello Kitty doll that I could use in my un-Camden redecoration of their room.  
  
"Hi Snookie." Robbie said. "I knew you'd be back for your Hello Kitty doll."  
  
I hate that nickname. Snookie? Honestly.  
  
I smiled a cute, sweet smile. I can be disarmingly adorable when I want to be.   
  
"That's right. My room wouldn't be complete without her."  
  
I walked out of the room trying not to gag too loudly and headed out towards the garage with the doll under my arm. My plan was to paint violent gashes and wounds all over the doll using Matt's candy red Camaro paint. After making the doll look as bloody as possible, I let the paint dry and then left the doll right on top of Robbie's bed. That was for all the times he called me "Snookie".  
  
By now I was on a roll and I had yet another brilliant idea. The twins had not yet been completely brainwashed by Mom and Dad. There was still time for me to train them to become my minions of evil, MWAHAHAHAH!  
  
An idea started to form in my head. I could teach the twins to...speak! Odd, I thought, that they couldn't yet. Perhaps it was my parents' constant need to have something to baby. (That, or the mysterious "Hidden Hand" that I sometimes suspected was responsible for making our family so much out of touch with what seemed like reality. But I tried to think of that as little as possible. Perhaps my actions would banish it, once and for all.) Well, I would no longer be babied, and they would neither. I reached behind the living room couch and picked them up (for people with such a need to baby something, my parents sure neglected them a lot). I placed them, one by one, in the center of the living room...  
  
Suddenly I heard a voice say, "Ruthie."  
  
I looked around, but there was nobody there. I assumed it was my conscience and decided to ignore it. I turned back to the twins --  
  
And once again, I heard, "Ruthie." And I could have sworn I saw one of their mouths move.  
  
As I stood there staring, the first voice said, "Yes Ruthie, we can speak. We've been hiding it for quite some time now."  
  
One of the twins was actually speaking. I didn't know which one, because nobody in the family knew which one was which. But it was definitely one of the twins.  
  
Before I could recover from my shock, the other one added, "And also, Ruthie, we're on to you." 


	4. Chapter 4

Title: Ruthie's Descent  
Rating: R  
Authors: Cathryn, jbpspbj, No1uNo  
Author's Note: This, like our previous work, is a round-robin fic by those good people at TWOP.  
Disclaimer: We own nothing.   
  
Chapter 4  
"And," the twin continued, "we want to help."  
  
I was happy to hear this. "Thank you . . .is it David?" I said.  
  
The twin looked at me, confused. "David? What's a david?"  
  
I replied, "Well, I'm wondering, which one of you is Sam and which is David?"  
  
"Oh, well, if you're asking about which one of us has learning difficulties, it's him, but I don't know the words you're using to describe it. What do 'sam' and 'david' mean?"  
  
I had a hard time understanding what the twin meant. "They're your names, dummy. Which one are you?"  
  
The twin looked excited all of a sudden. "We have names? Oh boy! I thought Mom and Dad had run out of names or something. They just always call us the twins and so I assumed we didn't have our own names!"  
  
This was getting annoying. "Well, one of you is Sam and one of you is David. I guess you can each pick a name since you don't know. Now which one are you?"  
  
The twin wrinkled his nose. He really looks a lot like Simon when he does that. "I hate both of those names," he declared. "I want to be named Rod, after that great ex-boyfriend of Lucy's. No, wait, I liked Jeremy better! Oh, I know, I'll call myself Rod Jeremy."  
  
"Ok, fine, Rod Jeremy, now let's figure out what to do next!"  
  
We huddled together and started to plan, but just then Simon poked his head into the living room. I worried briefly that he may have been listening, but then I realized it didn't matter much. It was just Simon after all.  
  
"Who were you talking to, Ruthie?" he asked.  
  
"Oh, I was just…" A meaningful look from Rod Jeremy told me that he was not ready to share his secret with anyone but me. "…uh, talking to myself."  
  
"Why are the boys out from behind the couch?"  
  
"Maybe they like it out here, did you ever think of that?"  
  
Simon looked as though he were honestly considering the question for the first time. "Well, Sam may like it, but I think David is getting scared."  
  
I looked past Rod Jeremy to the Other Twin who, sure enough, was staring around the room as if he'd never seen it before, his eyes widening in an expression that was quickly approaching panic. Perhaps this new freedom was too much for him.  
  
"Wait. Did you call this twin Sam, and that one David? How do you know which is which?"  
  
"Well, this one is taller, so he must be older, and since everyone always says Sam's name first, that means Sam is the oldest, so the tall one is Sam."  
  
I was shocked! As screwed up as his logic was, it seemed that at some point Simon had actually wondered which twin was which, and given each his own name. That was more than I had ever done. Suddenly, it seemed almost a shame to destroy Simon along with the rest of the family. After all, when I was little I spent more time with him than with any of the others, even Mom and Dad. We shared a room, he taught me how to swim; he tried to take care of me. It isn't really his fault that he just doesn't have a clue. I discovered that I didn't really want to torture Simon. Well, not any more than I always have, anyway. But this was a war I was fighting! I had to ask myself, could I trust Simon to help me, to join my side as the twins had? Or, at least, as Rod Jeremy had? (The remaining twin was still staring nervously at the wall and hadn't said a word.)  
  
The answer was no. Anything I told Simon, he would immediately betray to our parents, or to Matt. He is too well trained. He would pretend to understand, but he would really think I had gone crazy. I could probably have talked him into helping me. I can usually talk him into anything. But as soon as he was out of my sight, They would convince him it would be "for the best" to tell them anything he knew so that They could "help" me. No, I couldn't trust him with the truth about my plans.   
  
But maybe he could help me anyway. He just wouldn't know he was doing it. 


End file.
